Question for woodturners

[heath]

A while back I bought a second hand lathe from the school where I work, I recently bought some centres for it and when I bring the headstock and tailstock together they don't meet exactly. How big a problem is it and is there a way of rectifying it?

Oh and also do you know of any good woodturning forums?

Cheers
Heath

 

[robin wood]

A while back I bought a second hand lathe from the school where I work, I recently bought some centres for it and when I bring the headstock and tailstock together they don't meet exactly. How big a problem is it and is there a way of rectifying it?

Oh and also do you know of any good woodturning forums?

Cheers
Heath

It's probably not a huge issue unless they are 1cm out, a mm or two will be fine.

I don't think woodturners are a very internet savy bunch...mostly retired men (awaits abuse from angry young female woodturners and internet savy oldsters). There is the AWGB forum but rather quiet http://www.awgb.org.uk/phpBB3/index.php

 

[launditch1]

What type of lathe is it?It could be possible to put some shims underneath the headstock to bring it up to the height of the tailstock.By shims i mean thin pieces of metal like brass or something.Thats assuming the headstock is removable?...

 

[heath]

Thanks for your replies Robin and Launditch, It makes me feel much better to know that it's not a big deal.

It's a record Drillmaster lathe with a cast iron bed (I think it's quite old but has probably had very little use. I will have a look tonight and see if there is anyway I could raise the tailstock, thanks for the suggestion Launditch.

Cheers Heath

 

[Kerne]

If it is an old school lathe it is likely to be a Union Graduate and you have yourself a fine machine. However, you cannot put shims under the headstocks of these lathes, only the tailstocks. On the other hand, as has been mentioned, it is no big deal having the centres not meet exactly as you will always be turning on a line between them - you'll just be going a little uphill or downhill. This should have next to no effect on the finished piece.

Happy turning!

 

[Bothwell_Craig]

It's really sad that there is very little wood turning done in the majority of schools now a days. I've been working in a school for a few years now and asked if I could use the lathes to turn some wood. I went in with the upper school pupils and they were fascinated that I came into class with a tree trunk and left with a beautiful piece of art.

The teachers lamented the turning of wood but with the curriculum so focused on joints and measuring there wasn't room for creativity in the strive for qualifications. Even the new technical teacher had never worked a lathe

 

[Kerne]

We still use ours regularly - but not often for "traditional" bowls and chair legs, etc. We do a lot of turning for vacuum forming moulds and suchlike. We only teach turning (and most other skills for that matter) when the students needs it. We could do much more if we were not ruled by the need to get them through exams.

 

[weaver]

The only problem I know of with non-aligned centers is trying to perform precision center drilling on long pieces like flutes and kaleidoscope tubes. The hole will be twice the offset too large. So, if you know your offset you can use the smaller drill size to compensate.

Not many turning forums over here either. A small one and some good links here...

http://www.woodturningonline.com/Turning/Turning_articles.html

 

[Colin.W]

I have an old lathe, the tail stock is not in line with the head stock by about 6mm or 1/4 inch to the non metric of us. I have recently turned a set of bobbins and the mirror (the top circle with the hole) to make a miradai for japanese braiding. I dont even notice the offset as said earlier the timber turns between the 2 ends and makes no difference if they are at a slight angle to each other I was turning 6 at a time so the ends were at least 12" apart

 

[Indoorsout]

Try this forum - https://www.woodworkersinstitute.com/forum/default.asp

It's got a quite busy turning community, just wish the carving forum was as active!